Type Delete Retype

3 things

Here are 3 things I did today (aside from taking pictures from my iphone, surfing the net, asking for hair advice on FB, going out for a walk by the river and inserting a new banner to this blog).

1. I squeezed the oranges which were languishing in the bowl for some juice. The juice tasted good. I had to stop myself from making a second glass. Why didn't I think about doing this earlier? We have too many oranges to eat and I have been chucking away a lot of the older ones. I will certainly be repeating this practice tomorrow. 

2. I continued to unpack my stuff (from their boxes where they have been hiding since last July) into our apartment. It took me some time (mainly because I was multi-tasking -i.e. also checking emails, FB comments and tweets, taking instagram pictures). I'm done with the kitchen (for now).  Here is an instagram picture of some colourful fridge magnets to make you happy.

3. I found a stack of drawing pens and colour pencils lurking in a box (together with a mountain of other forgotten art supplies). They urged me to do something - anything. So, I hastily drew a teapot which was sitting in front of me: the only teapot I have now, which incidentally is also a very recently acquired one: My mother gave it to me last month (when I visited her), right after I remarked that it was a nice tea pot. Once upon a time, in a distant land (and life), I had many cute teapots. But I gave them all away when I was packing up to come here. I can't believe that I didn't save ANY. I'm still on minimalism etc mode* but come on ...I should have known that a cute teapot to brew tea in is surely a necessity!   

 

{Instagram picture of the drawing}

* You wouldn't think so, I know, if you were my brother in law helping to carry my check in bag last month in Singapore

New apartment

 

 

{our room with a view}

 

 

{my first work of art* - in the living room} 

 

* Car tracks from masking tape - Idea gleaned from a blog somewhere (I can't remember where) on how to amuse little boys while travelling light.   

Settling in

{view from iced window upstairs - old home)

Back home: An uneventful and smooth flight back to Basel but a wonderful welcome at the airport. I was greeted by E and LE - the latter rushing and jumping towards me. I had missed him so very much there was nothing to do but to drop my bag and catch him for a long, big hug. It's so nice to see him again - I really (100x) love him.   

It's snowing: E and I talked about taking LE out for a walk in the forest on Sunday - after I arrived but reconsidered when it started snowing. We subsequently kept warm, playing indoors and watching cartoons on television. It is still snowing but LE's teachers and school mates are made of sterner stuff: this morning LE joined them for his weekly activities in the forest.  

Where am I again? I'm jet lagged. This time I'm not only feeling disoriented but also achy, like I've caught a bug from my fellow passengers. Dangdamnit. I know I'm back in Basel now (and not Singapore or KL or Spain or HK or Copenhagen) but still I'm not feeling entirely settled: we are making trips to and fro our old house and new apartment as the latter is still missing many things including much needed wifi.    

Our new apartment

(The First supper)

I'm loving our new apartment. It's still barely furnished and all the empty space is making me feel calm and good. We are still missing ceiling lights and are making do with table lamps and fairy lights; this makes the living room dark but cozy.

Last night, E and I had our first supper at home, consisting mostly of salad (we are on a diet after the excesses of the last weeks) and accompanied by Drop Dead Diva. Afterwards, I went back to work (writing my term paper on Afghanistan) while E watched a few American dramas in Spanish.

Our new sofa is extremely comfortable; our bed is even better. Truly, I do think we did well with our choice of mattress and pillows considering the improvement in our quality of sleep.

I had brought a few boxes from HK to the new apartment. I found a few items broken (a wine decanter, sake jug and 2 tier cake stand) while unpacking my "kitchen" boxes. Sigh, a little bit sad as they were items I favoured (unsurprisingly having discarded all the things I didn't feel strongly about). Mais, cie la vie -they are only possessions which can be replaced in the grander scheme of things I suppose.

We are leaving for Singapore later today. Business class tickets courtesy of E as an early birthday pressie - Big YAY. I must remember to stock up on Swiss chocolates at the airport.

Basel

Back in Basel but not for long. It's not sunny here, unlike in Zaragoza. The skies are grey and it's dark outside. Not too bad as at least, it's not windy and raining, which was the case everyday in the UK Midlands (yes, yes, I am a broken record). We spent most of yesterday unpacking and packing for our few nights in the new apartment and upcoming trip to Singers (G and I turn 40 this weekend!). I'm really looking forward to celebrating our birthday and being in the heat again.

I can be obsessive and annoying I know, repeating an incident over and over again. The last big episode was about losing a pair of spanking new wolfords tights which I just couldn't find in my bag as I was dressing to say I do. Poor E and G had to hear me go on about it for days afterwards while we were in Denmark and then Asia. We came back home and I still couldn't find it, despite turning our bedroom upside down - cue for E to hear me go on (and on) with greater force...until last night - when I found it while unravelling my wardrobe! Amazing grace. YaY! 

Next obsession nipped in the bud: E reckons that I will not stop going ack over the VAT incident as I do about my tights (and before that, the adapter I left behind on the train to Germany). He mentioned he would compensate me to minimise the obsession but I didn't take him so seriously. Until last night when he actually did it! Rright after I waved the tights to him. Haha. He's convinced that it's best to nip my VAT thing in the bud i.e. before I get worse seeing as I won't have much else to obsess about having found the tights. As if (yes!)

Lack of Internet

I'm missing regular Internet connection these days. I'm mostly away from home being out and about.

We had our first sleep over our new apartment last night. I had spend the day in Zurich while E had his office party in town. We both felt great about not having to worry about making our regular trek to get back home. E walked home while I simply hopped on a tram from the train station.

We are still missing lights on the ceilings and wall. This is my innovative effort of having some light in the flat. 

The view

The view from our new bedroom window. It was one of the flat's selling point. 

Where am I? Part 2

Back in Basel now albeit just for a few days. I hopped off the plane in Zurich yesterday only to make a mad dash for the train to Basel and then straight to our new apartment so I could let in the people delivering and assembling our furniture. They took about 6-7 hours to finish. There was no place to sit until the sofa was ready so I stood around the apartment in various locations and took pictures of the flat, in between eating clementines (by the kitchen sink) serving the workers Danish Christmas biscuits + water (in the living room) and reading Gandhi's autobiography on my kindle for i-phone (in the kitchen by the radiator). I'm really looking forward to settling in our new place which in case I havent mentioned enough times before is right smack in the middle of the city i.e. only 2 minutes away from the market square. 

 

The view from our kitchen window -which I like very much.

 

 

Our living room (before the arrival of our new furniture) -

 

Getting out of my comfort zone

It's one after another - being here.

First there was the bicycling in town - with the cars, roundabouts and trams. I was so nervous at the beginning, I hop off and wheeled my bicycle at busy junctions and roundabouts. I also preferred to clamp on the brakes when going down hill. Of course, I do nothing of that sort now, staying on my bike and pedalling at the roundabouts and taking advantage of any downhill speed to gain momentum and more time.

So what is it this time?  Driving here! Yeyse...yesterday I drove E's car (left steering wheel) on the right hand side of the road, in the morning traffic i.e. amidst running school kids, bumper-to- bumper traffic to reach to the tram station (plus minus a wrong turn here and there). Later, in the evening, I drove back from the tram station to home. 

I was extremely nervous on Sunday night. And indeed yesterday morning when I woke up at 5am mulling whether I should just stay in bed and not bother with school, or to go in but with my bicycle and leave at lunch time. The only thing is I wanted to sit in lectures.

So - today - I'm going to repeat the same routine.  I'm feeling nervous  this morning but nothing like yesterday.   I don't have an afternoon class but an appointment with the hairdresser to trim my hair. It's out of shape and I need to look nice for next week now, especially now that I've confirmed for pictures to be taken!  

View while at the furniture shop

We went to a furniture shop on Germany this morning. I could not stop myself from sighing out loud looking at the scenery around us while in the car. Just a regular Saturday morning shopping trip and already we were surrounded by colourful trees and shrubberies. I do so love the colours of autumn. I'm so happy to be experiencing the 4 seasons again.